Commentary: David Ignatius | Mueller report shows the system’s working

Attorney General William Barr speaks alongside Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, right, and acting Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Edward O’Callaghan, left, about the release of a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report during a news conference, Thursday, April 18, 2019, at the Department of Justice in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)

Patrick Semansky/AP

Mueller’s report is a win for the slow tortoise of the truth. Now voters will say what matters.

President Donald Trump’s conduct in office has been diminishing the moral capital of the United States for more than two years. The report by special counsel Robert Mueller released Thursday puts a little of that capital back in the bank.

Mueller’s 448-page account is an affirmation that the rule of law still exists in America, despite Trump’s rants and rages against his enemies. Mueller’s decision not to charge Trump with collusion or obstruction of justice remains puzzling, given the evidence he assembled. But the facts are there, in meticulous detail, for the world to weigh.

The message: Even under intense stress, the American system hasn’t buckled. A prosecutor appointed and overseen by Trump’s Justice Department is still capable of discovering the facts about this president. The FBI and intelligence agencies weathered a Mueller-documented campaign of presidential intimidation. The fact that a cool-headed Mueller didn’t call for legal prosecution, when half the country was calling for Trump’s scalp, in some ways affirms the integrity of the system.

Mueller, in effect, left the final judgments to Congress and the American public. His signature line on obstruction is ambiguous. “While this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.” I’m inclined to agree with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that the matter is now best left to the voters in November 2020. Mueller has given the Democrats a rich menu.

Mueller’s report is a win for the slow tortoise of the truth. Trump has been tweeting for nearly two years about the “hoax” of the Russia story, and Attorney General William Barr continued his pro-Trump spin campaign 90 minutes before the report’s release. But now we have the facts.

The biggest surprise for me was the new evidence of Trump’s Russian connections, and his attempts to pre-cook policy toward Moscow, even though Mueller decided they didn’t add up to a conspiracy.

Among the new details:

Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser, was tasked by Trump to discover damaging details about Hillary Clinton’s emails; following a secret January 2017 meeting in the Seychelles between a Trump confidant and Putin ally, a five-point plan was produced for easing pressure on Moscow; an August 2, 2016, meeting between then Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an alleged Russian intelligence contact named Konstantin Kilimnik yielded a plan for “backdoor” acceptance of Russian control of Eastern Ukraine.

We also learned new details of Trump’s efforts to derail investigations: He instructed former Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland to write a memo claiming that Trump hadn’t told Flynn to discuss easing sanctions with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Dec. 29, 2016; McFarland refused. He told former White House Counsel Donald McGahn to deny reports that he had ignored Trump’s order to fire Mueller; McGahn refused. Small but memorable acts of conscience.

Why do these revelations matter, if the outcome of Mueller’s investigation, almost certainly, is to spare Trump from indictment or impeachment? It’s because they support the process of law and accountability, which is more fundamental than whether Trump stays or goes as president.

Congress may shy from impeachment; the public may even, inexplicably, decide that Trump deserves a second term. But the facts will be there for future historians — and for the millions around the world who have worried (or celebrated) that our system is cracking. We’re still here, Vladimir.

The loss of U.S. moral authority in the world since Trump took office has done incalculable damage to the country. If America were a business, you would say that its most valuable asset — a reputation built over two centuries as a nation based on moral values — has been squandered by Trump for short-term gain. If he were the chief executive of a public company, he would have been removed by shareholders long ago for breach of his fiduciary duty.

Watching Trump, the world has wondered whether America has lost its bearings. A prominent Asian analyst said to me two weeks ago in Cairo: “America is lost.” A European intelligence official said that longtime allies were nearing the point of losing trust in America’s reliability. Even Russian President Vladimir Putin has joined in the schadenfreude, saying that America is wracked by political crisis.

America’s friends are right to be worried by this president. But they should take some reassurance from Thursday’s Mueller report, with all its weird half-steps and unmade judgments. It affirmed that the fundamentals of accountability are still intact despite Trump’s best efforts to rig the system.

Ignatius is on Twitter, @IgnatiusPost. To read other reactions to the Mueller report, see the commentaries we have solicited for Saturday’s The San Diego Union-Tribune from two ex-San Diego city attorneys, two local professors and representatives of the two major county political parties. To share your thoughts, please email us at yoursay@sduniontribune.com.